UPDATE 1-Rio sees Namibia uranium expansion in 2008

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CAPE TOWN, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Mining giant Rio Tinto Plc (RIO.L) said on Tuesday that it hoped to complete its expansion of its Rossing uranium operations in Namibia later this year.

"We also have expansion projects (at Rossing) that we hope to come to fruition later this year," Preston Chiaro, chief executive of Rio Tinto's energy division, said in a presentation to the Indaba African mining conference in Cape Town.

The expansion of Rossing, a large open-pit uranium mine and the world's biggest low-grade uranium producer, includes a new sulphur burning acid plant on the mining site and sulphur storage in the Walvis Bay harbour.

Its cost is expected to be at least $112 million.

Rossing would ramp up output towards its capacity of 4,500 tonnes of uranium through the expansion, roughly 12.5 percent higher than output in 2007.

The increase will be reached through technical innovations, opening of new mining pits and establishing new processing facilities with associated waste storage facilities.

Rossing's mining life was extended to 2016 in 2005 and is expected to be further extended to 2021 after the expansion.

Rio Tinto owns 68.6 percent of Rossing, which has been in production since 1976 and is one of several key uranium developments in Namibia, which is among a handful of uranium producers in Africa.

South Africa also is a big producer of uranium, which is mainly used to fuel commercial nuclear power plants.

As a primary producer of U3O8 uranium, Rossing accounts for about 7.7 percent of world production. (Reporting by Paul Simao; Editing by Quentin Bryar, Cape Town bureau 27 82 312 4114)